Aquatic housing systems are useful for breeding, hatching, feeding and maintaining fish. Aquatic housing systems have found particular use in the fields of developmental biology, pharmacology and medical research.
A system for housing fish is currently available from Marine Biotech, Inc. of Beverly, Mass. This system has a rack construction that allows for several levels or rows of fish tanks to be stacked vertically. Each level has a tank shelf that serves a twofold purpose. First, it serves as a shelf to hold a row of fish tanks. Second it serves as drainage for water that empties, spills, splashes or overflows from the tanks. The shelf slopes downward to the back of the rack where a vertical waste column is formed along the entire width of the rack. Each level also includes a water manifold for supplying a fresh supply of water to the tanks.
This prior system has a number of disadvantages. Light cannot effectively reach the fish as the rack is closed on three sides with walls formed of black plastic. This causes a problem with getting the fish to establish and respond to a light cycle.
The water flow from each manifold is adjusted by one valve at the end of the row. The water is discharged from the manifold by spray holes at spaced locations. This results in uneven water pressure and flow along the manifold. Thus, if a tank needs water, all other tanks will also be served with water. This can result in overflow conditions for some tanks as the tank in need is being filled. Also, it is difficult to align the tanks along the shelf to be in registry with the spray holes.
Each tank has its own lid with a front and a back hole. The back hole is for water to enter and the front hole is for food to enter. The hole size necessarily must be large enough to admit the water spray and food. This size has been so large that the fish can jump through the holes and out of the tank. Lost fish represent lost data as there is no way to identify a fish once it leaves its tank. The hole size compounds the problem of aligning the tanks with the water spray holes of the manifold. Misalignment results in water flowing down the sides of the tank and no water exchange in the tank. This is an unhealthy condition for the fish. If food is not accurately placed in the front hole, it can clog the front hole and/or pile up on the lid surface, thereby requiring frequent cleaning.
The tank contains a drain hole in its front side. This results in water flow down the front side, leaving substantially no room for researchers to put labels and research information on the front side where it can easily be viewed. Data is currently recorded on a side of the tank where it is difficult to see.
Another currently available tank has an inwardly sloped front wall that serves a self cleaning function. Water has to be flowing at extraordinary rates for the self cleaning function to work. This cause a rather high water turbulence that is stressful for the fish.
Only one size of tank is currently available. This presents some difficulty in keeping track of a large group of related fish if they have to be divided into a number of tanks.
The currently known racks are single sided in that they allow tanks to be presented to workers on only one side. This requires racks to be placed back to back with separate water distributors, pumps and waste water collecting vessels.
A main object of the present invention is to provide an aquatic housing system that overcomes the disadvantages of the prior systems.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an aquatic housing system that has a double sided rack.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an aquatic housing system with a lid that covers two or more tanks.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an aquatic housing system that has an individual water valve for each tank.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an aquatic housing system having a tank suspension system.
Still a further object of the present invention is to provide an improved drainage system for an aquatic housing system.
Yet a further object is to provide an aquatic housing system that accommodates different sized tanks.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a tank divider that allows one tank to divide two or more fish within the same tank.